The year 2025 was declared an Ordinary Jubilee Year by Pope Francis in his papal bull Spes Non Confundit (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), which takes its title from Romans 5:5. An Ordinary Jubilee Year, also called a Holy Year, traditionally takes place every twenty-five years. The last Ordinary Jubilee Year was celebrated in 2000, though there was a special Extraordinary Jubilee Year announced in 2015 for the year 2016.
Jubilee Years are associated with indulgences, which are one of the least understood aspects of the Catholic faith. Even Catholics who seek to obtain indulgences do not always fully understand what they are and how they are justified theologically. Neither a full exposition nor a comprehensive defense of indulgences is possible in this brief article. Nevertheless, I would like to offer a preliminary explication of the basic notions underlying the doctrine and practice of indulgences as presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) and explained by the two great scholastics St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure.
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